Harford County, along with several other Maryland counties, continues to have a gang problem and police need more legislative weapons to attack it, Harford’s top cop said earlier this week.

Fortunately, gang activity is not as serious in Harford as it is in some other areas of the state, Sheriff Jesse Bane said at the pre-session legislative meeting between state legislators and county officials held at the Edgewood Library Monday.

“We have been able to keep a lid on gang activity,” Bane said, adding that Prince George’s and Montgomery counties have serious gang issues.

But Bane also warned the elected officials present that, “Gangs are not going to go away.”

The sheriff asked delegates and senators for new anti-gang legislation that will eliminate some of the confusion and ambiguity from a statewide law passed two years ago at the urging of Bane and other Harford officials.

Specifically, Bane said the new legislation should remove the complex language of the current gang definition, establish statewide gang member validation criteria, add more gang-related offenses to the list of underlying crimes and make tougher penalties for violating of the statute.

Bane also said the sheriff’s office knows the identity of the gang members in the community and school officials know the gang members who are attending public schools.

He said the sheriff’s office tries to give nonprofits like the Boys and Girls Clubs and the Greater Edgewood Education Foundation information about gang members.

Although Bane is pushing for enhanced gang legislation, State Sen. Nancy Jacobs said it will be difficult to pass anything related to gangs in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. Jacobs was primary sponsor of the gang legislation now on the books.

“It is because of the committee chair, plain and simple,” she said. The chair of the Judicial Proceedings Committee is Brian Frosh, a liberal Democrat from Montgomery County.

Harford Del. Susan McComas said the chair of the House Judiciary Committee Del. Joseph Vallario Jr., a delegate from Calvert and Prince George’s counties, does not support tougher gang legislation, either.

Jacobs said both chairmen have issues with gang legislation because they are both lawyers and have long-standing ties to the defense bar.

“Trial lawyers have difficulty with legislation that has mandatory sentences in it, legislation that makes it tougher to plea bargain and legislation that would be considered to be tough on crime,” Jacobs said in a phone interview Wednesday.

Jacobs said even the governor has trouble with bills in those committees.

“Trial lawyers who defend clients who can be affected by this type of legislation have heartburn over them,” she said, adding that judges also have issues with the same type of legislation.

McComas suggested talking to House Speaker Michael Busch because he selects the House committee chairmen. Busch is from Anne Arundel County, where the highly-publicized killing of a high school boy by gang members occurred earlier this year.

“You have a friend in him [Busch],” McComas said to Bane.

Bane suggested the state in dealing with gangs should adopt the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, Act, a federal racketeering law, but Jacobs said the Judicial Proceedings Committee hates RICO.

Nevertheless, Del. Pat McDonough said he is sponsoring a statewide bill in the upcoming legislative session to adopt the RICO statute in Maryland.

McDonough said RICO would allow law enforcement to look into a gang, even if only one member in the gang committed the crime.

“We will be able to go beyond the individual and investigate it [the gang] as a whole,” McDonough explained Thursday, adding that the RICO statute would give law enforcement a lot more authority than a simple anti-gang bill would.

Traffic cases, gambling

In addition to gang legislation, Bane also requested legislation that would require defendants with payable traffic citations to request a trial date, rather than automatically assigning one, as is the case.

Bane said putting the onus on the defendant to request a trial date would help cut down on police overtime, so that police officers aren’t making unnecessary appearances in court.

He also requested legislation to require drivers to reduce speed when approaching a stationary police vehicle with activated emergency equipment.

Bane also mentioned the perennial subject of legislation to increase gambling opportunities for nonprofit organizations’ fundraising activities. Harford continues to have some of the most restrictive laws on nonprofit gambling in the state.

Bane said he doesn’t necessarily support such legislation, but he also said he wouldn’t try to block it, either.

“I believe we [the sheriff’s office] could probably deal with it,” he said.

Bane said he also supports changing the expiration date on vertical identification cards and driver’s licenses issued to those under age 21.

The Harford County Liquor Control Board has asked the local legislators to change state law so that the same expiration policy applies to both driver’s licenses and ID cards.

“The sheriff’s office is in support of that,” Bane said.

Representatives from county’s office on mental health and alcohol prevention program also were at Monday’s meeting requesting the legislators do not support combining Harford’s programs with Cecil County’s.

The representative said the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene wants to combine the offices of the two counties.

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